Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures/Merrick MortonBrad Pitt did it. Angelina Jolie did it. And on the one-year anniversary of his death, Heath Ledger did it.
Nominations were announced this morning for the 81st Academy Awards.
The Pitt-driven fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button led with 13 nods. The Mumbai-set fable Slumdog Millionaire earned 10.
In a Best Picture field sure to be noted for what was not nominated, namely The Dark Knight, Benjamin Button and Slumdog will go up against Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader.
As expected, Ledger, who died last Jan. 22 at age 28, represented for The Dark Knight in the Best Supporting Actor race. The other contenders: Milk's Josh Brolin; Doubt's Philip Seymour Hoffman; Revolutionary Road's Michael Shannon, one of the film's least-known actors and its only marquee nominee; and Tropic Thunder's Robert Downey Jr., who pulled off the kind of populist nomination that Dark Knight couldn't.
Among the top categories, Best Actor featured the fewest (read: zero) surprises. The usual suspects were accounted for: Benjamin Button's Pitt, The Visitor's Richard Jenkins, Frost/Nixon's Frank Langella, Milk's Sean Penn and The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke.
Jolie's up for Best Actress for Changeling. Her competition runs from the expected to the not: Rachel Getting Married's Anne Hathaway; Doubt's Meryl Streep; The Reader's Kate Winslet, nominated here despite being packaged as a Supporting Actress candidate; and Frozen River's Melissa Leo, a character actress (and Homicide: Life on the Street alum) who moves onto the A-list thanks to the low-budget indie thriller.
Other categories and factoids:
• Amy Adams (Doubt), Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Viola Davis (Doubt), Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button) and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) are up for Best Supporting Actress. Tomei is the category's only former Oscar winner—and yes, she did too win for My Cousin Vinny.
• In all, Doubt's nuns, priests and, in the case of Davis, worried parents accounted for one out of every five acting nomination.
• Denied a Best Picture nomination, WALL-E is up for Animated Feature alongside Bolt and Kung Fu Panda.
• The Best Director field precisely mirrored the Best Picture race, which was bad news for Dark Knight's Christopher Nolan. The nominees: Benjamin Button's David Fincher, Frost/Nixon's Ron Howard, Milk's Gus Van Sant, The Reader's Stephen Daldry and Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle.
• Daldry is the only directing nominee who wasn't nominated by the Directors Guild. Conversely, Nolan is the only DGA nominee who wasn't nominated by the Academy.
• What The Dark Knight is nominated for, besides Ledger's Joker: art direction, cinematography, editing, makeup, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects.
• With eight overall nods, Dark Knight is tied with Milk for the third-most nominations. Also, it leads in crushing disappointments.
• While Oscar host Hugh Jackman didn't get the $531 million-grossing Dark Knight, or even Clint Eastwood's currently hot Gran Torino, as Best Picture contenders, he did get Benjamin Button, the first Best Picture candidate in two years to gross at least $100 million prior to being nominated.
• Win or lose on Oscar night, Winslet has already beaten Bette Davis. At age 33, she's now the youngest performer to earn six career nominations. It took Davis all the way until she was 34 to get her six-pack. Of course David did win two Oscars by age 30. Winslet is still Oscar-free.
• Showing no mercy, Streep has now opened up a three-nomination lead over the late Katharine Hepburn and former costar Jack Nicholson, with 15 career nods to their 12 each.
• As previously noted, Ledger is the sixth actor or actress to be nominated posthumously. The last, and to date only, performer to win posthumously was Peter Finch, Best Actor winner for 1976's Network.
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army earned more nominations (one, for makeup) than W. (zero).
Winners are to be announced Feb. 22.
(Originally published Jan. 22, 2009 at 6:06 a.m. PT)